Crime Scenes: Traces of an (un)reality (2018-2020)

In Crime Scenes: traces of an (un)reality (2018-2020) I use sources relating to both historical and contemporary methodologies applicable to crime scene photography, the photograph’s physical presentation in court and, later, how it is archived by the police. The physical presentation of the photographs as an album reflects the Crime Scene Photograph Albums used in the Irish judicial system which are used to show the crime scene and its associated elements to the jury. The overall boxed presentation of the album and the hardback book emulate the archived police case files as held in The National Archives, UK. The choice of font, type and colour of paper, style of photography and binding is traceable back to historical as well as contemporary examples of crime scene photography, its presentation in court and its use by police forces.

To create the photographs below I employ the following method, using the city of London as the backdrop: I photograph the physical traces I find within the city as if I were a crime scene photographer called to document a scene of crime. Moving through different areas of the city I seek out and visually record found traces/marks that denote the remnants of a prior unobserved act of violence having taken place. Having found a suitable trace/mark I show its position, size, or directionality by placing an authentic forensic marker alongside it, and photograph according to the method and visual aesthetic common to close-up evidence photographs. Ignoring the broader physical limits of the given crime scene, I choose to photograph the given subject from a close-up perspective, paying close attention only to the visible trace evidence and the various forensic markers used in the delineation of such trace evidence. The resultant photographs visually present a small fragment of what I believe to be the aftermath of a larger, unobservable act of prior violence. The exact context and nature of the documented crime scene and the prior act of violence remains undisclosed: the ambiguity of the subject is reinforced by the simplified titling, together with the close-up nature of the documentation. This is an approach that removes the ability of the viewer to ascertain more substantive visual clues which could determine the exact nature of the events that have precipitated the crime scene photograph’s creation. Through the integration of the found trace and my physical intervention in forensically marking out this trace, there exists a tension between what is real and what is fictional. The trace/mark is real, whereas its identification as an authentic piece of evidence found at a crime scene is fictional. I remain unaware of how and why theses traces have come to exist: it is up to the viewer decide if what is presented is real, fictional or lies at the intersection of the two. This approach allows a questioning to occur, wherein the veracity and authenticity of both the photograph and the documented subject, and the assumed truth or fictionally of each photograph, may be challenged.